Summer Desserts in a Snap

Life is too short to give up dessert. But life is also too short to spend a lot of time making it.

The dilemma has ended. By using the best time-saving ingredients, a little modern technology and some old-fashioned kitchen sense, you can have dessert on the table in no time. Good thing. Life is too short already.

Here are some secrets to great short-cut desserts.

* Choose the best ingredients. If a dessert is to be really quick, each ingredient must have something to say for itself. Superlative chocolate, the freshest eggs, real butter, pure extracts and the best fruits of the season are critical to the success of any recipe, especially when there are few other ingredients to mask inferior flavors.

That’s why our grandmothers’ overriding philosophy of “cooking in season” is at heart a great time-saver. Raspberries at the peak of summer can be dressed in little more than a dollop of whipped cream, made pretty in pink with the addition of a few sieved, crushed berries. No matter what you do to winter’s flavorless, pricey berries, you’ll never get anything to approach it.

* Take a new look at old ideas. Sifting flour, for example. Get rid of your sifter. Today’s flour is pre-sifted. To mix with other ingredients, simply whisk or stir them together.

Though creaming butter with sugar in a big standing mixer is necessary for light and airy layer cakes and puffy cookies, a denser, moist texture is preferable for rich shortbread and bar cookies and for such homespun cakes as gingerbread. Simply melt the butter and stir in the rest of the ingredients, then pat or spread the dough or batter in a baking pan.

Toasting nuts is another easily solved problem. If you are using them in a baked dessert, spread them out on a small baking sheet and toast in the oven while it is preheating. Otherwise, toss the nuts in a small dry skillet over medium heat. Either way, you’ll know they are toasted when they darken a bit and smell “nutty.”

* Put technology to the taste test. The microwave oven, though a dismal failure at baking cakes (no matter what you might hear), is the appliance of choice for melting butter or chocolate, both of which can be done with great precision and in the same bowl to which you will add the remaining ingredients. The food processor is a whiz at mixing ultra-smooth chocolate truffles, pureeing fruit for a silken sauce and even turning frozen canned fruit into an ingenious instant sorbet.

* Let go of homemade. My grandmother, a legendary cook and baker who was also nobody’s fool, quit churning her own butter the first morning the milkman arrived with a wax paper-wrapped slab, and she really did think sliced bread was the best thing. Take a look at some of the excellent prepared products of our era: frozen puff pastry or filo sheets, wonton skins, frozen pure fruit juices that provide concentrated hits of flavor by the spoonful and excellent ice creams that rival the best that came from my grandmother’s hand-cranked freezer.

* Think outside the box. On the other hand, satiny chocolate and butterscotch puddings and rich dark brownies take a minute more to make from scratch (and use no more utensils) than opening a box. The taste difference is monumental.

Mixed Melons in Grappa

Active Work and Total Preparation Time: 20 minutes plus 1 hour chilling time * Easy

Choose melons that have a lush fragrance and are heavy for their size. A good melon smells better than any perfume. Your market may even sell local melons, already sliced or cut.

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/3 cup grappa or other brandy

1/4 cup superfine sugar

3 tablespoons slivered fresh mint, plus sprigs for garnish

4 cups sliced melons, such as mixture of honeydew, cantaloupe and Persian melons (don’t use watermelon)

* Stir together zest, juice, brandy, sugar and 2 tablespoons mint in shallow glass dish. Add melon slices and stir gently to coat. Cover and refrigerate at least 15 minutes or up to 1 hour.

* To serve, arrange melons in overlapping slices (alternate colors if using more than one variety of melon) on 4 dessert plates. Stir remaining 1 tablespoon mint into macerating liquid and spoon over melon slices. Garnish each serving with mint sprigs.

4 servings. Each serving: 134 calories; 17 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 0 fat; 29 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram protein; 1.02 grams fiber.

Nectarine Cheesecake Mousse

Active Work and Total Preparation Time: 20 minutes * easy

If the mousse is served immediately, the gingersnaps retain their distinctive spicy crunch. After a few hours of chilling, they will soften to a cake-like consistency and infuse the cream with ginger flavor, which is equally good but very different.

6 ounces cream cheese

1/4 cup honey

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 cup whipping cream, chilled

3 nectarines, coarsely diced

1 1/4 cups crumbled gingersnap cookies (about 25 cookies)

* Blend cream cheese, honey and lemon juice in bowl of electric mixer until smooth. Add cream and whip to very firm peaks. Fold in about 3/4 nectarines and 1 cup gingersnaps.

* Spoon mousse into 2-quart dessert bowl or 6 individual dishes. Sprinkle with remaining diced nectarines and crumbled cookies. Serve immediately or refrigerate up to 3 hours before serving.

6 servings. Each serving: 437 calories; 266 mg sodium; 97 mg cholesterol; 28 grams fat; 45 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams protein; 0.30 gram fiber.

Tuscan Rosemary and Pine Nut Bars

Active Work Time: 10 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 40 minutes * Easy

Don’t scoff at putting rosemary into cookies. These are an extraordinary, delectable accompaniment to a plate of ripe summer fruit, such as peaches, nectarines, grapes or figs.

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut in 10 pieces

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon chopped rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried

1 cup flour

* Spread pine nuts on baking sheet and toast, stirring once or twice, at 350 degrees until a shade darker and fragrant, about 5 minutes. (Watch carefully; pine nuts burn easily.)

* Melt butter in microwave or in medium saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in powdered sugar, rosemary and pine nuts. Stir in flour to make dough; it will be stiff.

* Pat dough evenly into ungreased 8-inch square baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees until golden and firm at edges, about 20 minutes. Cool pan on rack about 2 minutes, then use sharp knife to cut bars into 16 squares. Let cool in pan at least 10 minutes before removing with small spatula. (Store, tightly covered, up to 5 days or freeze up to 1 month.)

16 cookies. Each cookie: 105 calories; 59 mg sodium; 16 mg cholesterol; 7 grams fat; 10 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram protein; 0.05 gram fiber.

Easiest-Ever Fruit Sorbet

Active Work and Total Preparation Time: 5 minutes plus 12 hours chilling time * Easy

Try this once and your freezer will never again be without a can of fruit at the ready. Any canned fruit in heavy syrup will work, but my personal favorites are apricot and fig. Vary the liqueur according to what you like and have on hand.

1 (15 1/4-ounce) can fruit in heavy (not light) syrup

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon liqueur, optional

* Place unopened can in freezer at least 12 hours or until frozen solid. (Fruit can be left frozen several months.)

* Submerge unopened can in hot water several seconds, then open can and cut fruit into several chunks. Place fruit, lemon juice and liqueur, if using, in food processor and pulse until smooth, 10 to 15 seconds. Scoop sorbet into balls and serve immediately or refreeze up to 8 hours before serving.

3 servings. Each serving: 108 calories; 9 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 0 fat; 29 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram protein; 0.42 gram fiber.

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Tea towel and glass in cookie photo above and tea towel in sorbet photo on cover from Sonnie’s, South Pasadena. Bowl in sorbet photo on cover from Windows, Pasadena.